


the farmer's wife

by gotham_ruaidh



Series: Gotham Writes for Imagine Claire & Jamie [95]
Category: Outlander (TV), Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-20 11:27:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16136291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gotham_ruaidh/pseuds/gotham_ruaidh
Summary: How much did Frank really know about Claire and Brianna going back to the18th century? What does his research about the past tell him about his own future?





	the farmer's wife

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted at [Imagine Claire & Jamie](https://imagineclaireandjamie.tumblr.com/post/178574078679/frank-travels-through-time-i-dont-know-he-just) on tumblr

At the sound of footsteps, Professor Frank Randall swiveled in his chair, taking his unlit pipe in one hand.

“Is this it?”

Professor Brown gently set down the heavy old tome, carefully wrapped in brown wax paper. “This should be it. Came up in the pouch from Duke this morning.”

Carefully Frank set down his pipe and splayed his hands on the desk, not touching the volume. “Well then. You know I’ve been tracking the Scottish diaspora, as it were, post-Culloden. A fair bit of them ended up in the back woods of North Carolina, of all places – including some pardoned Jacobites.”

The younger professor’s eyes lit up with surprise. “Is that so? I knew a lot had gone to Nova Scotia, of course – did you know that I studied Gaelic up there one summer? – but it didn’t even occur to me that the Carolinas would have been a destination.”

Frank shrugged. Sliding open a desk drawer, he withdrew a long, sharp letter opener – a birthday present from Brianna, a few years back – and carefully slit the paper wrapping.

Professor Brown coughed. “Well then – I got my own delivery of papers from Duke in the same pouch. Copies of broadsheets and the like, published in Wilmington and Cape Fear during the Revolution.”

“Fascinating.” Frank’s flat, disinterested voice was all the younger man needed; quickly he retreated from Frank’s office, leaving the historian alone.

Frank lifted the cover and scanned the table of contents. Turned to quickly reference a note scribbled on his legal pad. Then opened to the appropriate page.

CENSUS OF THE STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, 1780

He switched on his desk lamp, running a careful finger down the neat columns of names and figures. Patient.

It took quite a while to find what he was looking for – a process delayed by a telephone call from Bree’s school, a postdoc student dropping off a manuscript for comment, a quick visit from Sandy to confirm their dinner plans on Friday evening.

But it was unmistakable when he found it.

Fraser, James Alex. Malcolm MacKenzie

Born: May 1, 1722

Nationality: Scotland

As were the names listed beside his:

Claire Fraser. Brianna MacKenzie. Roger MacKenzie.

Jeremiah MacKenzie. Amanda MacKenzie.

Germain Fraser. Janet Murray. Ian Murray. Rachel Murray + male Infant

Fraser’s occupation was listed as “Farmer.”

Quietly Frank copied the information onto his legal pad, fingers shaking, thoughts racing.

1780…would be 1982, if the grimoire safely hidden away on the back shelf could be believed. Twenty years hence. Brianna would be thirty-four. And he would most likely be dead.

That Claire would return to Jamie’s arms was a given. But would she force Bree with her? Force her to eke out a living on the edge of the wilderness?

Frank closed the book and slid it to the corner of his desk. Checked his calendar. Telephoned the shooting range to confirm his and Bree’s appointment that Saturday.

All throughout dinner that night – Bree excitedly sharing her approach to research a new history assignment – Frank could only look across the table at Claire, trying to find the farmer’s wife.


End file.
